mississippi, ashland to be more specific near highway 4. we re told that the plane did get down. we had been trying to figure out the condition of the suspect after he was taken into police custody. we have been working the phones and we know there s only one hospital there, the tippa county hospital there. we ve been working phones to see if he s been there and folks have not been able to give an update specifically, but, guys, an end to a five-plus hour ordeal that started around 5:00 central time. folks saw this low flying plane circling a walmart and they thought something was strange about this, so they decided to report this to police, a short time later, this suspect reportedly got in contact with police and started demanding things. what he was demanding is unclear at this hour, but told police he would intentionally crash that small aircraft into a walmart. after circling the walmart for some time, he apparently moved northeast up into an area, blue springs, mississi
change. aishah: . and dr. diehl, from your research analyst hat on, we understand that there were authorities on the ground in contact with the person flying this plane. this went on for hours. walk us through what that kind of conversation has to entail? how does that go? well, there are trained clinical psychologists that work for the f.a.a. that can do hostage negotiations. this is not a hostage negotiation situation, but people that are trained to deal with suicidal individuals. so, i don t know that the people that we re talking to him had that training. they may not have had time to get in place, but they do have a group for hijacking. i know in the f.a.a., there s a my boss was on call for hijacking so that does happen occasionally, and they do have individuals that can talk to
already en route to interview him once presumably he s in a hospital situation. once the doctors clear the f. f.a.a., i m sure they ll be asking him lot of questions and already getting his training records. if reports that he was a student pilot, they re getting ready to talk to his instructors and co-workers, et cetera. griff: and allen, does the n.t.s.b. have any involvement here? normally they wouldn t. trying to think of my days at n.t.s.b., where we ve looked at incidents. there have been suicide and when that occurs, a crash or a serious incident, the n.t.s.b. would get involved. normally, we don t know if the aircraft was damaged. there may not technically be an accident or an incident, but in their definition. i think this is primarily going to be a law enforcement, an f.a.a. inquiry, but things can
side, on the ramp, in the ang gars, so forth. there are clearly trust issues and security issues, but at the same time, everybody s background that gets these clearances has been checked. otherwise they re not going to get the clearance and not going to be out on the ramp. so i think we ll see a real focus. i have no doubt at all that that focus has already started at the f.a.a., tsa, the airport, so forth. griff: clark, quick question here, whether it matters, whether or not this person was brought down because of a lack of fuel or if this was a negotiated landing, crash landing? because from what we understand, the suspect was in contact with authorities on the ground. does it make a difference when you re talking about a prosecution here and the level of charges that could be brought? i think it s unlikely if he
made a rational choice, i ll see a field there and i ll put it down or i ll glide into the field. i think it s remarkable, basically he walked away from this. so it will be interesting to see what i m told over the next few days. griff: certainly developing this story right now. mark thank you for joining us, if you can stand by for a moment. thanks, griff. we re going to continue with the events of the coverage in mississippi. alan diehl, research psychologist joins us, and thank you very much. and it s terrifying thinking about folks on the ground watching this plane at such a low altitude flying around somewhat erratically not knowing exactly what s happening. where does the investigation begin now? well, clearly, the local authorities, the law enforcement authorities have him in custody. i would imagine the f.a.a. is